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Time to Get Serious About Learning

Enough already. Bad Powerpoint slides. Monotone talking heads droning on and on. Workshops with descriptions that have the sizzle to sell, but whose real content lacks the substance to sustain interest. Aggressive vendor sales pitches loosely masquerading as quasi-educational infomercials. Meeting spaces and room sets so claustrophobic, so cluttered with noise from adjoining rooms, and so utterly constraining that you want to scream in agony. Bad handouts. No handouts. Ugly clip art. Poorly designed conference schedules allowing little time for breathing space, reflection, and informal interaction.

I have sat through more of these moments at association and corporate conference this year than any one person should endure in a lifetime. What I find most appalling is that the masses don't demand better and vote with their feet and pocketbooks. It's almost as if people have been lulled into believing this is what they should expect from a learning experience. It's not, and they shouldn't.

If you, too, have "done time" in more bad workshops than you feel is appropriate, and if you share my conviction that things have got to change, please visit: ChangeThis :: View Proposal where I have proposed to create a manifesto on this very topic.

Change This is a fascinating new effort from Seth Godin, a Fast Company magazine columnist and author of many best-selling books about marketing and customer relationships. Change This allows individuals to propose proposals to write a manifesto on a topic of interest. Proposals are screened and a limtied number are then posted on the Change This web site where the public can vote for the proposals they would like to see written in full manifesto form.

Even if you don't vote for my proposal, I encourage you to visit ChangeThis :: ChangeThis where you will find proposals from everyday individuals like you and me, appearing alongside gurus like Tom Peters, Al Gore, and the like.